At FOTOfusion a few years ago I conducted a workshop called “Right in Your Own Backyard” which was based on the premise that you needn’t travel halfway around the world when great photo ops are closer to home. When showing an image made, literally, in my backyard, one of the students asked, “How did you make that picture.” Answering was difficult because it addressed the thought processes going on while an image is created but I never got that question out of my head.

New things inspire me. It can be a new camera, new lens or new location but they all inspire me to make photograph. I’m in the process forming a kit for my Lumix system and recently purchased a well-used and well-loved Panasonic GX1. I can hear some of you now: “It’s so old.” Introduced in 2012, the GX1 is old in Internet years (they’re like dog years) but sonofagun it still works and makes great pictures.

I took mine out for a stroll around nearby Bingham Lake with M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f/2.8 lens mounted and an exposure of 1/250 sec at f/16 and ISO 200. The camera also came with a LVF-2 (tilting) eye level finder that I really liked using during the walk.